System of musical notation.



G. L. BECKER. SYSTEM OF MUSICAL NOTATION.

APPLIOATION iILED JULY 18, 1912.

3 Patented May 27, 1913.

SCALE DEGREE 1 Z 5 4 6 7 8 SCALE DE- D R M F 5 L T wDfimuson-w GREENAMES n T B M 5 D H LMSt T(Harmonic) lflggggg con Amn ane an own, on eenoon INTERVAL NAMES FROM 00 ah Q m, o I ave ee. 00 FIRST DEGREESOEEIAiOER Primes Seconds Thirds Fourtns Fifths 62mins {Savant/1s; Octale5 A T BBE'FE ahl ale (p)al ole all eel ool ahlz ailz q mlz 0M1 1 awlzeelz 0011 See F 0 le WITN88E8 'mvmron l TTORNEY GUTLV L. BECKER, OF NEWYORK, N. Y.

BY TEM OF MUSICAL NOTATION.

Specification of Letters latent.

Patented May 2'7, 1913.

Application filed July 18, 1913. Serial No. 710,880.

' To all whom it may concern:

citizen of the United States, residing in the in their [useful mpro emenborough of Manhattan, city of New York in the county of New York andState 0 New York, have invented certain new and m S stems of MusicalNotation, of which t e fol owing is a specification, reference being hadtherein to the accompanying draw ngs, forming part thereo My inventionrelates to systems of musical notation and embodiments of my inventionare particulall ada ted for use in the teaching of musics sigh reading,espe aily for vocal reuditiom' An object of m invention is to rovide asystem which w' l be simple an comprehension, and which will accentuateanddevelop in the-student simultaneously a dsiinite sense both oftonality and of interv I.

Another object is to pr vide a sy em ghiph may be written and needwithout a Other objects and advantages of my in vention will appear fromthe following description.

Of the various systems of syllahlfication for musical notationheretofore employed, no system has been efiective in 'ving to thestudent an equal appreciation oth of scale tone and interval. All havebeen deficient potency to give the true a preciation of either one orthe other of t ese desideratums. For example, the so called movable dosystems, as a rule, present an accurate understanding of tonality, butthey leave the student seriously deficient in interval knowled e, whilethe fixed do systems have on tivated the intervals in a general way buthave ne'lected the sense of tonality. The fixed 0 systems roughlyindicate the dimensions of the intervals but they do not enable the pu11 to take down from dictation of such sy ables any melody containingmodulations or chromatic changes,unless there be added certainexplanatory words such as diese for sharps or kernel for flats, whichencumber the vocal rendition Nearly all the systems employed in theearly history of music, such as that of Guido or rezzo and the oldIndian Sanscrit s stem, alwaysemployed the same syllable or the samepitch of tone, though there were easy of certain exceptions to thisrule, such, for example as the ancient Hebrew music which employedcertain names for their six scale signs which were indicated by symbolsplaced over or under the words to be chanted. Other s stems, such asthose of Franz Wiillner an Friedlander in Germany and Hullah in England,were systems of interval readin and applied a knowledge of all intervalsy reading from the staff with notes, regardless of key. Still othersystems used number singing to indicate scale degree, whileaothers useda certain fixed syllable for every chromatic tone. The well known tonicsol-fa system of John Curwen employs the syllables do, ray, mee, fab,sol, la, tee, and in this system do always re resents the first degreeof the scale regar less of the chan e in key while the correctappreciation 0% intervals is not sufiiciently emphasized. Efl'orts havebeen made to improve these systems, notably by Samuel W. Cole of Boston,Massachusetts, who lately developed a system which employs certain vowelsounds to indicate intervals in the abstract, and certain prefixedconsonants to indicate the nature of theintervals, that is, whether theybe major, minor, perfect, diminished or augmented. While this systemgives a definite idea of the interval to be sung, it is defective inthat it does not decoincidentally a sense of tonality.

invention aims to obviate the disadvantages of the systems heretoforeused, and to provide a system of syllabification which combines theadvantages of both the movable do s stems and of those employingdefinite s lable indications, but which is simpler an more effective inthe teaching of a correct appreciation of either intervals or tonalitythan any which have preceded.

To this end, my invention comprehends the use of certain interval names,preferably suitable vowel sounds, combined with suitable scale degreenames, such as suitable consonants, which are preferably prefixed to theinterval names, to denote the scale degree tones to be sung and thenumerical names of the interval to be taken.

My invention also comprehends, in combination with the interval namesand the scale degree names, the use of interval describin names, such assuitable consonants,- whic are preferably sufiixed to the intervalnames, to indicate the specific size of the intervals, and while theseinterval describing names may be used in combination with every intervalname, they are preferably used only when the intervals are not normalmajors or perfect intervals.

My invention also comprehends the employment of suitable symbols toindicate whether the progression is upward or downward.

My invention also comprehends various other features and combinationsand has various other advantages, as will hereinafter more fully appear.

I shall now describe the embodiment of my invention illustrated in theaccompanying drawings and shall thereafter point out my invention inclaims.

As interval names, to denote the intervals, I prefer to employappropriate vowel sounds such, for example, as 00 for a prime or for theinitial tone of any composition or detached part thereof, ah for 'asecond, ay for a third, ai (as in air) for a fourth, o for a fifth, awefor a sixth, ee for a seventh and 00 for an octave. For indicating thescale degrees, I prefer to select as scale degree names, easilyrecognizable consonants, and toprefix these to the interval names. Thesescale degree names for example, may be the beginning consonants of thetonic sol-fa system, as D,

R, M, F, S, L, T, or, if desired, the initial letters of the modernharmonic terms of the scale degrees may be employed, substituting somesuitable letters for the duplicates as T tonic), B (above tonic insteadof super-- tonic), M (mediant), S (subdominant), D (dominant) H (halfway to subdominant instead of submediant) and L (leading' note) or St(when depressed for sub-tonic). The intermediate chromatic tones may beindicated by the consonants P (passing up) and G (going down). It willbe apparent that these initial letters may be'easily remembered, andthat they combine with the interval names to form syllables which areeasily'sung. Thus for instance if the composition be in the key of'G andthe initial note be A, then in my system, if using the tonic sol-faconsonants, the initial syllable will be R00, and if the next intervalbe a third higher, the next syllable will be Fay, or ifit be a fourthhigher, it will be Sai, etc., thereby indicating both the scale degreeof the particular tone to be sungand the interval tobe taken from thetone last sung.

If the size of the interval to be taken be not a normal major interval,as formed from the first degree of the major scale upward, I combinewith the scale degree and interval names, interval describing names, andthese are preferably liquid or semi-liquid consonants, suflixed to thesyllable, such as u u ,n V, 1, or For example the added consonant n maybe used to intrated by a table, in which both the tonic" sol-fa and theharmonic scale degree names are tabulated, together with the intervalnames from the first degree of the major scale, and in which thesyllables denoting the respective intervals enlarged by one-halfstep,lessened by one-half step, and =lessened by a whole ste'p, aretabulated:

- To indicate whether the progression is upward or downward suitablesymbols may be employed in conjunction with each in-' terval. Forexample, short slanting lines may be used for this purpose placed injuxtaposition to each syllable, such as a short line slanting to theright, as shown in Fig. 2 to indicate that the progression is upward,and a short line slanting to the left, as shown in Fig.3 to indicatethat the progression is downward. Thus the combination of Fig. 2indicates that the next tone to be sung is the fifth' scale degree andis a seventh down from the last tone sung, while the combination of Fig.3 indicates that the tone is the fourth "scale degree and is a fifthlessened by one half step upward from the last tone sung. The length ofthe tones may also be indicated by suitable scale signs in writing, orby the" length of time the note is dwelt uponin dictating. Everydescriptive characteristic about a tone may, therefore, beindicated andmusic may be dictated' by my system without the necessity of employingany qualifying or descriptive expressions, and the need of a scale iseliminated.

I use the term vowel herein to mean either a single vowel or adiphthong, and I use the term consonant to denote either a single or adouble consonant.

It will be noted that, while my system is easily comprehensible, it isca able of embodiment in a vast number 0 forms, and that it clearly andprecisely indicates to the student both the tone to be sung and theinterval to be taken, and therefore gives him a correct appreciation ofboth.

It is ObVlOllS that various modifications may be made in'the embodimentshown in the drawin and above particularly described within theprinciple and scope of my invention.

I claim:

1. A system of musical notation, comprismeans ing a set of scale degreenames and a set of interval names, any one of the scale degree namesbeing adapted to be combined with any one of the interval names to makean easily vocalizable combination and to denote both the tone to be sungand the interval to be taken.

2. A system of musical notation, comprising a set of suitable consonantsto denote scale degrees, and a set of suitable vowels to denoteintervals, any oneof the scale degree consonants being adapted to becombined with any one of the interval vowels to make an easilyvocalizable syllable and to denote both the tone to be sung and theinterval to be taken.

3. A system of musical notation, comprising a set of suitable consonantsto denote scale degrees, and a set of suitable vowels to denoteintervals, any one of the scale de ee consonants being adapted to beprefixeg to any one of the interval vowels to make an easily vocalizablesyllable and to denote both the tone to be sung and the interval to betaken.

4. A system of musical notation, com rising a set of scale degree names,a set 0 interval names, and a set of interval describing names, any oneof the scale degree names being adapted to be combined with any one ofthe interval names, and any of such combinations being adapted to becombined with any one of the interval describing names to make an easilyvocalizable combination and to denote the tone to be sung, the intervalto be taken, and the character of the interval to be taken.

5. A system of musical notation, comprising a set of suitable consonantsto denote scale degrees, a set of suitable vowels to denote intervals,and a set of suitable consonants to describe the intervals, any one ofthe scale degree consonants being adapted to be combined with any one ofthe interval vowels and any of such combinations being adapted to becombined with any one of the interval describing consonants to make aneasily vocalizable syllable and to denote the tone to be sung, theinterval to be taken and the character of the interval to be taken.

6. A system of musical notation, comprising a set of suitable consonantsto denote scale degrees, a set of suitable vowels to denote intervals,and a set of suitable consonants to describe the intervals, an one ofthe scale degree consonants being a apted to be prefixed to any one ofthe interval vowels and any one of the scale describing consonants beingadapted to be sufiixed to any one of such combinations, to make aneasily vocalizable syllable and to denote the tone to be sung, theinterval to be taken and the character of the interval to be taken.

7. A system of musical notation, comprising a set of scale degree namesand a set of interval names, any one of the scale degree names beingadapted to be combined with any one of the interval names to make aneasily vocalizable combination and to denote both the tone to be sungand the interval to be taken, and two suitable symbols adapted to beplaced in juxtaposition to such combinations to denote upward anddownward progression, respectively.

8. A system of musical notation, com rising a set of scale degree names,a set 0 interval names, and a set of interval describing names, any oneof the scale degree names being adapted to be combined with any one ofthe interval names, and any of such combinations being adapted to becombined with any one of the interval describin names to make an easilyvolcalizable com ination and to denote the tone to be sung, the intervalto be taken, and the character of the interval to be taken, and twosuitable symbols adapted to be placed in juxtaposition to suchcombinations to denote upward and downward progression, respectively.

In testimony whereof I have ailixed my signature in presence of twowitnesses.

GUSTAV L. BECKER.

Witnesses:

WM. ASHLEY KELLY, BERNARD COWEN.

